That’s right. As the quirky and capricious year that was rolls to a close, Yo’s truly is asking the expert, the everyman and the truly ignorant for their pointers and predictions about the Chicago real estate market in 2007.
Will it be a bull market, a bursting bubble or something in between? Will the city let Calatrava build Churro Spire? Will The Donald’s head fit through the 14-foot-high doorway to the Trump penthouse or will the human hairdo be forced to drop his price and sell it? Will Pappageorge / Haymes design a building that our readers actually like? These and other burning questions. If you have a question about 2007, let Yo know and we’ll do our best to get it answered.
We kick off Yo ’07 with a prediction from the oracle of Chicago real estate, Gail Lissner of Appraisal Research Counselors: Having picked over most of the large parcels of land downtown, developers will descend on industrial parcels throughout Chicago’s neighborhoods in 2007, says Lissner. She says she knows of developers planning to tear down old commercial buildings that don’t have any architectural significance in order to replace them with mixed-use developments containing multiple product types aimed at first-time and move-up buyers hungry for new construction.
“We are seeing a lot of developers going farther and farther from the Loop,” Lissner tells Yo. “The South Side, of course, has the greatest availability of land, but [developrs] are also looking Southwest, West and Northwest.”
We asked Lissner if she was thinking of the Finkl site, but she said (rather enigmatically we might add), that she was referring to other developments in the pipeline. Lissner’s keeping tight-lipped on the details as Appraisal Research is unveiling its own 2007 forecasts in early February. But if anyone knows of an industrial parcel slated for redevelopment let Yo know.